Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-11-14
sincere. but Mistaken.

/ copied, in which we have something
to say about the unfortunate position
party prohibitionists place themselves
in, when they undertake to accomplish
temperance work, especially prohibi-
ton, by the formation of political
party. We do not wish to scold.
ridicule or fight them, nor will any
party. sect or individual who consci-
entiously adheres to way of accom-
plishing good, though it is not oul
plan. We simply think these people
are mistaken in their opinions and
methods.
They must note with no small de-
gree of chagrin and sorrow, that, with
all the efforts of the few who are
sincere, Jealous and persistent in the
work, it fails to accomplish very
much in a political sense. The par
tv, as political party docs not grow.
With all the interest that the churches,
temperance men, temperance organ
izations, temperance women, philan-
thropists, everybody has in the
great and most worthy object of tenn
perance, very few can be found any
where who believe in party prohibit
ton. This is of course, not abso-
lutely conclusive evidence that the
few are wrong and that the many are
right, but the many ale more likely
to be right than the few. AS the
condition of affairs now is, those who
seek to accomplish good by means of
the prohibition party, throw away
their votes and fritter away their OPP
portunities. The party is not strong
enough any where to control, or even
influence to any appreciate extent
the legislatures of states or congress.
In those states South, where prohi-
bitiOn laws have been enacted, of late,
pIOHIDlCLOIIISto VI Ill pau GiCS CudCL-
ed local option laws and the thing was
fought out in towns or counties when
no other issue was before the people.
This is a wise way and probably the
only way that the end was accom-
plished. Those who understand best
about southern prohibition, state that
the politicians and the leading men
favor the law more because it means
prohibition for the negroes and the
poor whites than for themselves.
1t may happen occasionally that a
party prohibitionist is elected to some
local or legislative place on the pro-
hibitiOn issue, but he is no better Of
ficer or legislator than a good thor
ough temperance man chosen from
either of the dominant parties. We
take the ground that in ninety-nine
places in one hundred it is easier to
elect good staunch temperance man
from the old parties than to elect a
man from the prohibition party, when
arrayed against nominees of the old
parties. 1t should be practical re-
suits that are sought after, not fine
theories, not the success of our own
particular candidates. We are as
eup,inCr +bo+ Db;b;+;o,,ie+c oro rooll~
seeking to do good in the line of tenn
perance. If prohibitionists seek the
good of the cause, and that alone,
they will be wise enough to vote
rrAule uIn5 VIII d. SOME good. Fir
ing blank cartridges may be pretty
amusemnnt, but that sort of doing
does not effect anything.
As the elections are tried it is some
what easy to see the results of the
party prohibition movement. In
Massachusetts, where some of the
most able men, ministers and other
professional men have been heartily
engaged in it, both by vote and pen
where there has been perfect or
ganization, as hard work on the
stump, as active efforts every way
as the old parties have made, the net
result has been only ten thousand
votes, one vote in, perhaps twenty
eight. One or two men have been
popular enough to pull into the legis-
lature as party prOhibitionists. In
hundreds of places the prohibition
candidates did not have a ghost of a
chance for an election, and vet the
impracticable party temperance man
has voted for him tout of principle
and lost his vote and his influence.
1t is well to vote for ''principle"
when that voting will do good, but it
is better to have method than mad
ness, better to take the chance of do
ing good with somebody else besides
our own special candidate, than to
II6SZS OuJ VI HZZI6 out dlOu6.
In New York the prohibitiOnists
had their candidates, had their
speeches, and dId vigorous cam
paign work as a distinctive party.
They cast 10000 votes, a large
number, and vet only one in p of
the votes cast. They elected few or
no prohibitionists to the legislature
they helped neither temperance re-
publican or temperance democrat to
office in any place where they stuck
to their own party. On the other
hand it is true that, in adhering to
their own candidates, they drew away
votes enough from one or the other
of the leading candidates to cause his
defeat, and to compass the election
of an anti-temperance man.
The mpracticabilitv of running